Depart-mental Wars! ERGH!!!!!

Yeah right! All you guys ever do is not move and sit in air-conditioned studios. What are you whining about? Kabhe itni moti moti kitabain and notes parhna parain to pata chalaiâ€¦

Shut up haan! We work our a** off on each stupid assignment we get. Weaving karni parai raat din to pata chalai. Buzz off.

This conversation would not be new for any of you who is somehow or the other in good or bad terms with the designers or management accordingly. Both the disciplines firmly believe that studies are what they do and the other party just sits and goofs around. From arguments on free classes, tedious assignments and brilliant teachers to air-conditioned rooms, comfortable seating and mental stress is a day-to-day conversation issue.

To highlight that who is right or who is not lets have a look at one of the most tedious working weeks of both the disciplines. An elaborate picture of the dead week and a week before.

THE LIFE OF A MANAGEMENT/SCIENCES STUDENT:

OH MY GOD!! Still have two more assignments to submit. I mean what the hell? The teacher could have informed us two weeks ago if he was to change the submission to an earlier date. Why cant teachers stick to their own schedules. Hopeless planning and they all blame it on the higher authorities, yeah rite why canâ€™t the higher authorities comprehend the fact that we are humans and not robots.

On a serious note, the designers think that all we do is roam around in the cafeteria, relax and sleep in the library and have nothing better to do in lives. Cant they focus big books in our hands, the sweat or the tension on our foreheads when we are rushing through the corridors and donâ€™t have time to eat? Or turn blind when they find us in the library behind shelves searching for books or articles???

I still remember, last semester we had 6 courses each having a final project to be submitted, not only that what about the weekly quizzes, class assignments and daily reading of the thick boring books? I mean our teachers seriously need to give us a break. Us k baad bhi ham cafeteria main thori saans lailain to are greeted with sentences like OH TUM LOG BHI PARHTAI HO??? Designers get a life:S

On submission of projects the week before the dead week, one of our teachers informs us that since the higher authorities want the result (out of 60) before the Monday of the dead week, kindly you students need to work on the FINAL projects and submit them on this FRIDAY (i.e. 4 days from now) instead of Monday. You so feel like killing your teachers at the moment and run out of the class pulling your hair since you had planned to work on the Monday report over the weekend, not that you were lousy or work on the eleventh hour but since you didnâ€™t have time because of the 3 previously submitted assignments.

You reach to the verge of losing it when another teacher reminds you of the fact k OH HE COMPLETELY FORGOT TO GIVE YOU A PROJECT BEFORE AND NOW all you need to do is write a 10-15 pages paper on a certain topic circumferencing the entire syllabus you have been taughtâ€¦BRILLIANT isnâ€™t it? One was just thinking of how to complete the previous stupid project before the weekend when he is greeted with another one, not only that another teacher of yours has not yet figured out how will he distribute the 30 marks for the final project he hasnâ€™t given us, so you could still expect a third project coming down your way.

HELLO DESIGNERS>>>>>>WE STUDY, yeah well we donâ€™t get extended dates everytime one student or more than one student in our class fails to complete his or her work, our teachers tend to give us late marks or not take assignments at all on late submissions, our teachers at times also mark us on a criteria which is not disclosed due to policy issues.

So you end up working on two more projects after submitting 3 already instead of studying for your finals. When finally you do submit them all and breathe, the CR informs you that all report submissions are to be followed by vivas in the dead week. WAT???? is all you could end up saying and eventually compromise to the situation.

The dead week is NOT A DEAD WEEK any more since you end up coming almost every day to the uni for the scheduled vivas. Mean time you keep wondering when to study the b***** subjects â€¦not to forget there are 6 of them each having 10 chapters minimum to read and almost learn. {Not to forget some of our teachers need exact answers from the book}. In case you are wondering that we could have studied them earlier and not leave them for the dead week. DESIGNERS we assure you that no we could not since they need revision and what about the 4 chapters the teachers taught you the last week {since he ran out of time or his schedule just went berserk}.

We breathe, relax, do have fun, work the hell out, study and also whine about teachers, courses and the INJUSTICE we are treated with. But then its not all that bad after allâ€¦. if the designers stop rubbing it in our faces K TUM LOGON KO KAHAN PARHNA â€¦.TUM LOGON KO KYA PATA KAUNSI TENSION, HELLO TUM PARH RAHAI HO? CLASSES HOTI HAIN? U just feel like killing them instead of your teachers. But after all they are your friends and they more or less are getting out the frustration they cant on their teachersâ€¦.

Footnote: did I mention the printer not working? The coupons not available? The binding going all wrong? The group partner coming up late, the teacher wanting you to redo some part of the assignment. The presentation and viva etiquettes. The class fellows trying on to find out the strategy we are working on and you trying to do your best and something different from the classâ€¦â€¦â€¦

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A DESIGNER

Addressed to all these sciences and management students who think designers just waste time sitting in their air conditioned studios while listening to songs

Dead week. Holidays to studyâ€¦ Yeah rite. Have assignments to do. Decided to get together at a friends place and do a final project due next week so that we may have time to study for papers later on. You see, unlike de rest of the students, we just donâ€™t have to study we have to study as well as do our projects during the last two weeks of term. Any way so we get together, we happen to be sharing stuff because well no one in their right minds would spend 3000 Rs to buy something he or she will use just one day and then throw away. Not even a day, make that 5 hours.

So we get together, spread out newspapers and start. Or at least we try to start, we are supposed to be printing but we find out that the stamps we have made arenâ€™t correct. You see, unlike the other faculties we arenâ€™t taught first and then graded on what we have learned, we are told to do some thing and are graded on how well we can do something without any prior knowledge. Yes, we actually do final projects of stuff we have never done before and have not even been taught. Just like getting a question in a paper you havenâ€™t been taught. So we remake our stamps or at least correct the ones we have as much as possible. And then get started.

We start out by mixing colors; they wont mix at least not the way our seniors told us. Apparently they were wrong, we find out how to by trial and error. You see the only sources of information we have are our seniors, so we have to go by what they say, but then no ones perfect. So we start printing find out that the ink that we are using is used for printing magazines and will therefore not get out of our clothes or of our body. Half way through the printing we are already looking like Africans, with paints over us and on the floor. Why so much mess, you ask, well thatâ€™s how this particular printing is and mess well, the fans we turn on because its hot, everything starts flying, we turn off the fans, we die, notice the extremely pleasant weather of Karachi. And then people ask why designers have ACâ€™ed studios.

We finish the printing, and look around us, the house looks like a battlefield, we scrub the house clean as much as we can, get most of the paint of us, say sorry to the owners of the house. Head home, look a complete mess, not even fit to walk on the road. Get home, screamed at by parent, its late, tired, sleep? No, have to pack have to go to hostel tomorrow, have to group study, papers coming up, not to mention other projects we have. Yes easy life we lead, aâ€™int it?

Footnote: And was that the end? God no. We had a crit, which is just a way for your classmates to show you how much they hate you. I donâ€™t understand why our grades depend on how nice we are to the people in our class. Itâ€™s unfair and of course on the fact that we have to be extra super to our teacher till she finishes grading. Even if she accuses u of having an affair with the janitor. And in case u r wondering I got a C

SO DESIGNERS AND MANAGEMENT STUDENTSâ€¦relax and breathe. We both are in different disciplines but please do try to understand. We both equally and times more or less face stress higher than the opponent but then we both have to manage and itâ€™s a choice we made. Its not that none of us get time to breathe or have fun but if properly managed we both can have time to wander. Its not that we donâ€™t spend time together even after so much work. So whatâ€™s the big deal? Designers have relaxation in some issues where as management has it in some issues. So just donâ€™t argue, instead strike a balance between and try not to bring up the issue if it is a vulnerable point to both.